Mayor inspired by dream workshop

Mayor inspired by dream workshop

Mayor Rick Goldring and nearly 40 community leaders spent two days last week defining a dream for Burlington.

The Inspire Burlington — Defining our Dream workshop was the brainchild of Goldring.

The two-day event held last Thursday and Friday at the Royal Botanical Gardens brought together community members from various backgrounds, such as developers, faith representatives, former mayors, current city councillors, school board officials, businesspeople, media and non-profit organization members representing such groups as arts, sports and the environment.

Members of Team Burlington, which includes organizations like the Burlington Chamber of Commerce, the Burlington Economic Development Corporation and Burlington Tourism, as well as representatives from the Burlington Art Centre, Museums of Burlington and the Burlington Performing Arts Centre, met with the mayor on Saturday to further flesh out ideas presented the previous two days.

Goldring said the outcome of the three days surpassed his expectations.

“I was thrilled with the way it went,” he said. “The two days, as well as the Saturday, were very inspirational. The amount of passion that people have for Burlington is phenomenal and deep-seated, legitimate, authentic and genuine. This forum gave people the opportunity to speak from their soul about what’s important about Burlington to them.”

The dream Goldring is hoping to craft will give residents a common goal to work towards in the coming decades.

“We’ve heard that people cherish what we have, but people recognize with the way we are in the GTA, the fact we are the slowest-growing community, we have little room for development, both on the residential and economic side, and we have to be creative and strive to maintain and enhance what we have,” he said. “The dream that will come out will address all that… It is meant to inspire everybody in the community.”

Goldring said it will take six to eight weeks before the official wording of the dream is ready to be made public.

The mayor said more work is needed to flesh out the variety of ideas that came out of the workshop.

“There’s a feeling in the community that Burlington is a compassionate city and it is a connected city,” he said. “People want a vibrant city, they want a city with activity and energy, and a place that is compassionate. There’s a tremendous sense of belonging in Burlington and people are looking for forward-thinking ideas for a prosperous future.”

Another theme that emerged from the workshop was Burlington residents’ love for their surrounding environment.

“I want to emphasize there is a deep connection to our natural environment and the waterfront,” Goldring said. “We are proud of being the ‘Jewel on the Lake’ and being the only community in the GTA that has a waterfront on Lake Ontario, as well as the Niagara Escarpment. People are very proud of the unique attributes that Burlington has.”

The Inspire Burlington — Defining our Dream project cost $50,000. Goldring said 100 per cent of the funding came from a group of local companies.

A major cost was the event’s facilitator, Lance Secretan of the Secretan Centre.

Secretan’s website states his dream is to change the world by creating inspiring organizations.

His biography says he is an advisor to leaders worldwide, focusing on transforming individuals, organizations, cities and states.

“I see this as a complement to our Strategic Plan and the key thing with Lance is that he’s done this work in some of the municipalities in the States, particularly Louisville, Kentucky, and he’s done it for lots of corporations,” Goldring said. “I saw his work as being leading-edge that we wouldn’t be able to get anywhere else.”

Goldring said Secretan suggested a limit of 25 participants, but Goldring said he invited a few more to widen the scope of representation within the community. He said he wanted his six fellow of members of council there, as well.

“I wanted to have a broad cross-section of people from the different sectors in the community,” he said.

Goldring said he will spend the next few weeks communicating with workshop participants, including hosting another meeting in January, to finalize the wording of the dream.

“On Friday, we didn’t quite nail down the dream for the city, we weren’t able to come to a conclusion, but we were close,” he said. “On Saturday, we continued wrestling with the dream and incorporating some of the thoughts we heard Friday.”